I read the English translation first, as it is the first in the book, then the French. The translation is competent, but does not have the rich, elegant vocabulary of the original, nor does it attempt to convey in an adequate way the northern way of pronunciation that is sometimes used in Gaston's narrative. The French is highly superior in style and atmosphere. And I have to quibble at the word "strange" which does not at all convey the sense of "effroyable" - dreadful, horrifying, appalling, fearsome, terrible... I will have to go and see how the Apollinaire poem has been translated.

The story begins at the trial of Maurice Papon in Bordeaux, then flashes back to a scene of the narrator's childhood, after a family outing to the cinema when uncle Gaston tells the boy what happened to the boy's father and himself during WWII when they were young résistants. A further flashback to their arrest for blowing up a generator in Douai. The story seemed familiar to me, especially the part in the chalk pit; perhaps it was made into a film. Off to check...

Oh well, yes, it was a film and I have seen it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI0s3TWKBiM